Review of Marmen Quartet.

Project Description

Sublime Strings

Tickhill Music Society was treated to a memorable evening by the Marmen Quartet at the final concert of the Society’s 2017/18 season. The music matched a beautiful Spring evening, with birdsong occasionally heard from inside the hall, and appropriately the first piece in the programme was Mozart’s “Spring” Quartet. This early example of the genre was an ideal start to the evening, with its contrasting lively and lyrical passages, and the young musicians were a perfect match for the young Mozart.

The programme then leapt forward 150 years to Janacek’s “Kreutzer Sonata”, inspired by Tolstoy’s murder mystery of the same name. The contrasting lyricism and dissonance of the music put the audience in mind of a film score, suitable for Tolstoy’s gruesome tale, and the Marmen Quartet played with great skill and insight.

A performance of Beethoven’s mighty opus 132 was the highlight of the concert. It occupied the whole of the second half, and was played with great affection and understanding. The extended slow movement was a thing of beauty which deserved a round of applause of its own. That applause was duly reserved to the end of the evening, and the audience departed treasuring the memory of an outstanding performance. Adrian Hattrell